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Hard mode
Hard mode is an increase in difficulty on a boss encounter resulting in increased rewards and/or achievements. This is accomplished by doing or not doing certain things that increase the difficulty of the boss fight. Information Obsidian Sanctum Obsidian Sanctum is the only current raid instance with a hard mode boss encounter. Ulduar Ulduar is planned to have 10 of the 14 bosses have hard modes.http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15864749106&pageNo=4&sid=1#78 These are: Flame Leviathan, XT-002 Deconstructor, Assembly of Iron, Freya, Hodir, Thorim, Mimiron, General Vezax, Yogg-Saron , and Algalon the Observer. Algalon the Observer does not have an easy mode. Hard mode encounters Sartharion Sartharion in Obsidian Sanctum has 3 different hard modes. The three drakes, Vesperon, Shadron, and Tenebron can be killed to make the Sartharion encounter of normal difficulty or it can be increased to hard mode by leaving one or more of the drakes alive when starting the Sartharion encounter. Defeating Sartharion with the drakes up rewards an achievement and additional loot, increasing with additional drakes. Flame Leviathan Flame Leviathan in Ulduar has 4 different hard modes. There are 4 towers, and leaving less towers up increases the difficulty of the fight and gives additional loot. Several achievements are also given out depending on the number of towers destroyed. They are (3 tower destroyed), (2 towers destroyed), (1 tower destroyed), and (All towers left up). XT-002 Deconstructor XT-002 Deconstructor has one hard mode. At 75%, 50%, and 25%, XT-002 Deconstructor's heart will be exposed. Destroying the heart (which has a multi-million point health pool) activates the hard mode, which heals XT-002 Deconstructor to full HP and gives him the buff Heartbreak, which increases XT-002 Deconstructor's HP by 75% and his damage done by 30%. Defeating XT-002 Deconstructor while killing his heart awards players the achievement or and additional loot. Assembly of Iron There are two different hard modes for the Assembly of Iron. The normal strategy is to kill Stormcaller Brundir last. The 'medium' hard mode is to kill Runemaster Molgeim last. the hardest way to do the encounter (and the method that rewards the best loot) is to kill Steelbreaker last. The rewards are increased loot and achievements. Hodir Hodir has 3 different hard modes. Three minutes into the fight against Hodir, he destroys one frozen chest. Six minutes in, he destroys the second chest. Nine minutes into the fight he destroys the last chest and enrages. Therefore the two different hard modes are: Keeping all chests intact (Kill Hodir within 3 minutes) and Keeping 2 chests intact (Kill Hodir within 6 minutes). The regular mode is to kill Hodir in 6–9 minutes, only keeping one chest intact. Thorim Reaching Thorim within 3 minutes causes Sif not to despawn and assist Thorim in the fight. Meanwhile, she cannot be targeted and she nukes the raid. Normal model also put a debuff Touch of Dominion to reduces his HP and damage by 25% (means 25% less damage and hp than hard mode). Freya Freya has 3 different hard modes. The three Ancients, Elder Brightleaf, Elder Stonebark, and Elder Ironbranch can be killed to make the encounter of normal difficulty or it can be increased to hard mode by leaving one or more of the Ancients alive when starting. Defeating Freya with the Ancients up rewards an achievement and additional loot. Mimiron Mimiron's hard mode is activated by pressing a button prior to the encounter. Pressing the button puts an 8-minute enrage timer on the encounter and increases the health and damage done of all the vehicles in the encounter by 25%. General Vezax General Vezax's hard mode is simple: Do not use the Saronite Vapors to regain mana. If nobody in your raid makes use of the Saronite Vapors, then after 8 Saronite Shards, a adds will spawn, you kill the adds and then kill General (there are only 8 Saronite Shards for the whole fight that will spawn), General Vezax will drop improved loot and reward the achievement . Yogg-Saron Very little information is known about Yogg-Saron's hard modes. There are four different hard modes for Yogg-Saron. The normal mode involves using the assistance of the four keepers - Freya, Hodir, Mimiron, and Thorim. The four different hard modes were revealed in PTR build 9704. They involve using the assistance of fewer Keepers. The reward is improved loot (assumed) and four achievements depending on which difficulty you engage him on. The achievements are: (Use two or fewer Keepers), (Use one or fewer Keepers), and (Do not accept the help of any Keepers). Algalon the Observer Algalon the Observer is unique in that he has no normal mode. He is considered a "hard mode only" boss by Blizzard because to confront him you must defeat multiple bosses on hard mode. There is little information on the encounter involving Algalon at this time other than the achievement / (Defeat a certain amount of Black Holes within a time limit). See also *Heroic mode *Normal mode References Category:Game terms Category:Instances